In a sudden fog, riverboat merriment sank and screamed into chaotic disaster.

On July 5, 1918, the South Side Social Club of Pekin sponsored an Illinois River excursion by the sternwheeler Columbia. At 7:30 p.m., the steamboat picked up passengers in Kingston Mines before stopping in Pekin for more fares, heading upriver at 8:15 with 496 people — men, women, children — aboard. The boat churned to Al Fresco Park, north of Peoria, stopping for 30 minutes before turning around for the return trip.

North of Wesley City (now Creve Coeur), with the river shrouded in dense fog, a submerged tree stump tore a gaping hole — 11 feet long and 2 feet wide — in the hull. The boat sank into 16 feet of water, with passengers struggling to stay afloat amid the shrieking chaos and make it to the shore. One was Lucille Adcock, 18, of Pekin, who clung to a flagpole to stay alive; the last survivor of the wreck, she died at age 106 in 2006.

Eighty-seven passengers died, including 57 people from Pekin. The dead were brought to the Pekin riverfront for identification.

That spot now hosts the Columbia Riverboat State Historical Marker, a grim but fitting reminder of one of the nation’s worst inland maritime disasters.